


Thank You

by thegreenwomanswalkman



Series: Afterlife [1]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Guardians of the Galaxy - All Media Types
Genre: Afterlife, F/M, Meredith has always been watching, She knows what Yondu did, Yondu is the best dad, happy angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-15
Updated: 2017-06-15
Packaged: 2018-11-14 12:11:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11207814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegreenwomanswalkman/pseuds/thegreenwomanswalkman
Summary: Yondu wakes up in the afterlife to find Meredith Quill has been watching him a the whole time he had Peter.OrYondu might not have been the best dad, but he deserves a thank you. Meredith delivers.





	Thank You

Yondu wakes up to warmth on his cheek. Last time he checked, he’d been floating in space with Peter clawing at his jacket. The boy’s screams got fainter as Yondu struggled to breathe. Eventually, everything just faded to black. But now, everything's awash with a bright light.

“Wha’s goin’ on?” he slurs as he blinks. Hovering over him is a beautiful woman. Terran by the looks of it. She has long blonde hair that looks as gold as Ayesha's headpiece. Her eyes, which examine him curiously, look familiar. A cerulean with little bits of sea green, like those on Xandar.

“Thank you,” the woman whispers in an ethereal tone.

“For what?” Yondu asks as she helps him sit up. He’s surprised that he’s not still floating in space. On the other hand, maybe he is and he’s just dreaming. Death could never be so kind to him.

“For saving my son.”

 _Peter's mother_...

Yondu blinks a couple of time. Can't wrap his mind around the fact that he's staring right into the eyes of Peter's dead mother. "Where am I? What the hell are you doin' here?"

Meredith smiles at him, a soft little thing. "On Earth, we'd call this place heaven." She gestures to the space around them.  "I don't know what they'd call it in your culture."

"We just call it death," Yondu says with a roll of his eyes. "Surprised I didn't end up in some kind of hell dimension."

"It don't matter now." Meredith's still smiling at him, which is unnerving. The only women who ever smiled at him either wanted to kill him or have sex with him. "What matters is that you saved my son."

"Did what I had to do, ma'am." Yondu can feel his cheeks heating up. Ravagers aren't supposed to care, to be soft. But in his final moments with Peter, with his _son_ , he rejected that notion. "Ego wasn't gonna get a hold'da my boy like that."

Meredith pats the spot on some sort of cloud. Asking Yondu to sit beside her. "I used to think he was an angel. Ego, I mean. I knew Peter was an angel the moment I held him." Her blue eyes, just like Peter's, go soft and glossy as she thinks of her son. "I didn't realize until after I died just what a horrible creature he was. Knew in death that he was the one that killed me so that he could get Peter."

"I didn't deliver him though. Cargo, Peter was. But he was good for thievin' and fittin' in'ta small spaces. Wasn't gonna let the boys eat him if we could use 'im."

"Yondu." Meredith puts a warm hand on his. Her voice still sounds ethereal, like melting Xandarian chocolate on one's tongue. Her skin feels warm, like the sunlight on his home planet, which he can barely remember. "There are no lies here. I know the reason why you kept Peter. And I'm glad you did."

Suddenly, there's a noise from somewhere behind the two. Yondu spins around, one hand brushing his coat back to reveal where his arrow would be. If he still had it. His other hand goes in front of Meredith as if to protect her.

"Yondu, look." Her hand settles at his elbow and pulls his arm away, pointing at something in the distance. It looks like a holoboard, but square and there's a back to it. "It's called a TV. We've got 'em back on Earth."

"What's it doing?"

"I don't know. Sometimes it shows me images or videos of Peter. It's how I watched my baby grow up." She points to the screen and grins. "Look, there he is."

Yondu blinks and finds himself looking at Peter. And, what the fuck, that's his body. It's wrapped in the typical Ravager funeral fashion. Yondu imagines Kraglin had a hand in it because he'd never really let Peter see a funeral. Only when he sent someone into space via the airlock. 

"Why''s he cryin'?" He knows it's a stupid question the second it comes out of his mouth. Meredith whacks him over the head anyway.

"'Cause he just lost his biological father and his dad all in one go." She shakes her head. "Have a heart, Yondu. No one's judging you here." She points to the TV. "Now hush. I wanna listen."

"I told Gamora how when I was a kid I used to pretend David Hasselhoff was my dad," Peter starts, his head bowed. Tears gather in the corner of his eyes, but he doesn't cry. "He's a singer and actor from earth, really famous guy. Yondu didn't have a talking car, but he did have a flying arrow. He didn't have a beautiful voice of an angel, but he did have the whistle of one."

Yondu's frozen in place. Meredith sniffles beside him and he reaches into his pocket. At least his handkerchief's still there. "Thank you," she whispers, blowing her nose.

"Both Yondu and David Hasselhoff went on kick-ass adventures and hooked up with hot women, and fought robots. I guess David Hasselhoff did kinda end up being my dad, after all. Only it was you, Yondu."

"David Hasselhoff is really that special to the kid?"

"Used to talk about him all the time. Watched his show whenever it was on TV." Meredith looks up at him with those baby blues and smiles. It's that damn soft smile that could melt even the hardest of hearts. "I can't see the resemblance physically, but you have the same heart." She turns back to the TV. "He's not done. I wanna hear this."

"I had a pretty cool dad." A tear finally falls and Gamora grabs his hand. "What I'm trying to say here is... sometimes, that thing you're searching for your whole life is right there by your side all along, and you don't even know it." Meredith watches as he rubs his thumb over the back of Gamora's hand and smiles softly at her.

"I never thought I'd see the day," Meredith whispers. "Well, I guess I didn't, but I'm seein' it now."

"What?" Yondu squints. "I can't see nothin' important. I mean, that speech was mighty nice, but--"

"Look, Yondu." The scene shifts and fireworks are exploding above the trail of Yondu's ashes. He tears up a little bit, but his eyes follow Meredith's finger to where Peter and Gamora are standing next to each other.

On the screen, Peter turns to Gamora. There's something in her eyes that Yondu can't read, but Meredith seems to understand.

"What?" Peter asks.

Gamora shakes her head. "Just... some unspoken thing."

Meredith turns to Yondu. "Do you see it now?"

Yondu scratches his head. "I'm guessin' it has to do with that unspoken thing." It comes out as more of a question, but Meredith's beaming at him. His heart soars and he wishes he could punch it in the face. If it had one.

"You're a good man, Yondu." Meredith's voice sounds full of sincerity and maybe he doesn't wanna punch his heart in the metaphorical face as much as he should be wanting to. She grabs his hand and squeezes. "Thank you. For taking care of my son."

**Author's Note:**

> So, this came out Not really sure if I got Yondu’s voice right, but I wanted him to have some form of redeption after death. And Meredith is always just shoved to the side, so I brought her back. Yondu needs to be thanks for what he did. And who better to thank him than Peter’s mom.  
> Hopefully you guys liked this!


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